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Thursday, December 11, 2014

EN: I'm back from Liège where I listened to navigator Isabelle Autissier who in 75 minutes highlighted the issues facing the Oceans. She spoke about water pollution, ocean temperature raise, marine biodiversity issues ... and of course that there is hope. I liked the end of her talk. She said that as a sailor in the storm you can be pessimistic about it and do nothing, optimistic about it and do nothing or realistic and change direction. It's indeed what humanity must do.

Sunday, December 07, 2014

EN: As in 2008and 2009, I went in Paris to the Nautical fair. I go to meet potential sponsors and of course meet adventure sailors. I met Yves Marre who lives in Bangladesh and Yvan Bourgnon, who will resume his round the world tour from Sri Lanka in a small catamaran navigating just with a sextant.

Monday, December 01, 2014

EN:After TEDxBrussels, I went to a Belfius bank event for
starters. Olivier Kahn and Thomas De Dorlodot showcased
the similarities between an outdoor adventure and
entrepreuneurial adventure. It was fortunate as I'm
building a similar "solo" talk based on my own ventures,
expeditions and previous documents I've researched about
it in the last 5 years. For instance the Chocolate Sherpa expedition (2009) served as case for a Thesis in
Business and logistics of Jeremy Roumian from France.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

EN: I did a 90 minutes workshop in Leipzig at the Junior Chamber International World Congress. I highlighted the sustainability and CSR lessons I have learnt on the field in expeditions. Mainly tackling water pollution issues. Participants received a few cases and have to give ideas on how to make their project more sustainable.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

EN: I visited Aerofleet at the France-Belgium border in Givet to see the nearly finished AERO-48 (video)sailing catamaran with electrical engines powered solely by solar panels. Mr Raphael Van Vlodorp’s company build custom made boats and other large things made of carbon fiber. The normal carbon fiber catamaran is about 15 meters for 5 ton and the version with solar panels, 2 ton batteries and electrical engines is at only 8 tons. The Swiss client should start a round the world trip in March 2015.

Friday, September 19, 2014

EN: Like in 2012, I went to Photokina to see the new photographic products and meet the the team behind the innovations. I was very happy to meet the teams of products I crowdfunded like the Panono and 360cam from Giroptic. I can't wait to test these in the wild or at events. 2015 will be the year doing photospheres will be made easy.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

EN: It was a real pleasure to meet Simone Moro in Ghent tonight. He did a lecture that was beyond most of the talks I have attended. He did an interesting introduction for the audience who is not aware of what is Exploration. Like he said, exploration is not only in the outdoors, but I won't reveal much more, just listen to him if you have the opportunity one day. Of course he showed a bit of his experience as mountaineer with a focus on his last winter ascent, illustrated by the film COLD which is the 3rd time I saw but always good to watch. One sentence I thought was striking if you are aiming at a world first/record (in whatever discipline) and someone else is also on it: "Every minute you don't train, is a minute given to the competitor". I agree!

However, for those who know me, I have a different approach as I have no time for training as I have no sponsors to pay me so my time is devoted to preparations. I do some expeditions in seldom visited iconic places and find a creative way to make a genuine world first. Even if the no or very few hours of training, I've been good in preparations, risk management and found the solutions that made difficult challenges possible for me. I've only failed once but learnt so much (perhaps even more than if I had succeeded) that I hope to make it on my second attempt, when ready.

Friday, September 12, 2014

EN: Three years ago, I heard about French-Canadian Georges ALEXANDRE who started kayaking from Tunisia to Brussels. His journey was 3700km long by Lampedusa, Malta, Italia, the rivers and canals of France and Belgium to Brussels. I joined him for the last 4km of kayak in Brussels then we walked for 7,85 km across Brussels with the kayak passing the Midi Station, Manneken Pis, the Grand Place, the Royal Palace until the European parliament. Arriving at 5pm, Georges entered and asked where he could deliver his petition for a better management of European immigration. He wants also a human handling of the people in the "immigration welcome center" like in Lampedusa.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

EN: I visited Southern Norway for and I did a 4 day road trip with an Aussie to visit 4 natural attractions. The most impressive is of course the hanging boulder "Kjerag" and when we got there it was pouring rain with mist and heavy wind. On the rock itself it was almost a reverse shower. On our way back to the car, the weather turned better and we went again for a far better experience.

Monday, July 21, 2014

EN: During 6 days, I went in the UK on a road trip including a challenge and some visits. I did the 3 peak challenge (highest peaks of Wales, England and Scotland) in less than 30 hours including 5h30 of sleep and 30 minutes getting lost in Glasgow by always taking the wrong exit. I did Mount Snowden, Scafell peak and finished by Ben Nevis. The next day I drove around the Island of Skye and the day after I went to the 2 different most Northern part of the main UK island. I visited also: Stonehenge, TitiKayak's sponsor Powertraveller, the city of Bath, had a drink with Explorers Connect founder in Bristol, Morgan Motor cars and Cambridge.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

EN: I went to Friedrichshafen in Germany to the Outdoor fair. I saw of course some new products, met brands and bumped into Polish Aleksander Doba, the man who kayaked (not a conventional kayak) the Atlantic. On Sunday I drove the the source of the Danube river.

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

EN: This evening, I did my fourth conference "Café de l'Aventure" in Paris. The evening is organized by La Guilde and the SEF (French Society of Explorers). Two weeks ago I also did a CreativeMornings talk in Brussels, the video is online.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

EN: I went North of Amsterdam to the Arjan Bloem kayak shop. They nearly store 2000 kayaks so there was a lot to see. I bought a second hand river wild water kayak. I tested it back in Brussels in the canals and took the opportunity to do 1km of clean up. I collected all kind of trash but mainly plastic bottles and tetrapacks.